LARRY BROWN                  KU Record: 135-44, .754, 5 Seasons

Link to Basketball Hall of Fame

The sixth head coach in Kansas basketball history, Brown maintained the Jayhawks' national prominence while leading his teams to NCAA Tournament appearances in each of his five seasons. Brown accepted the head coaching position with the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA following the 1987-88 season. Brown had a cumulative collegiate coaching record of 177-61 (.744) in seven seasons, including a five-year mark of 135-44 (.754) at Kansas.

A 1963 graduate of North Carolina, Brown was an honorable mention All-America guard under former Kansas basketball player Dean Smith. After playing on the 1964 United States gold medal winning Olympic team, Brown went on to distinguish himself first as a player then as a coach in the American Basketball Association. He also served as a head coach in the NBA following its merger with the ABA.

While the head coach at UCLA (1979-80, 1980-81), Brown led his freshman-dominated 1979-80 team to the NCAA title game before falling to Louisville, 59-54. Brown's 1985-86 Kansas team reached the NCAA Final Four, and the 1987-88 Jayhawk squad won the national title, defeating Oklahoma 83-79. He was selected as the 1986 Big Eight Conference Coach of the Year.

Brown, "Larry" (Lawrence H.)

b. Sept. 14, 1940, Brooklyn, NY

The 5-foot-9, 160-pound Brown captained the University of North Carolina basketball team as a senior in 1962/63 and played for the U. S. team that won an Olympic gold medal in 1964. He then joined the Akron Goodyears AAU team for two seasons.

After serving as an assistant coach at North Carolina for two years, Brown joined the New Orleans Bucs of the new American Basketball League in 1967. He went to the Oakland Oaks in 1968 and helped lead them to the 1968/69 championship, leading the league in assists.

Brown also played for the ABA's Washington Capitals, Virginia Squires, and Denver Rockets. He retired as a player in 1972 to become head coach of the league's Carolina Cougars and was named ABA coach of the year in 1973.

After one more season with Carolina, Brown took over the Denver Rockets and won two more coach of the year awards there, in 1975 and 1976. The Rockets moved into the NBA and became known as the Nuggets in 1976/77. Brown guided them to Midwest division titles in 1977 and 1978 but resigned late in the 1978/79 season.

Brown was named head coach at UCLA in the fall of 1979. Despite a 42-17 record in two seasons, the team finished no better than third in the Pacific 10 Conference, and Brown returned to the NBA with the New Jersey Nets in 1981. He left that job late in the 1982/83 season and became head coach at the University of Kansas.

Kansas was the surprise winner of the 1988 NCAA championship, beating Oklahoma 83-79 in the title after having gone only 21-11 during the regular season. Brown won the Naismith Award as college coach of the year.

Shortly after the tournament victory, Brown was named head coach of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs. He was replaced during the 1991/92 season and took over the Los Angeles Clippers just a few days later.

He moved on to the Indianapolis Pacers in 1993 and to the Philadelphia 76ers in 1997. In 27 seasons, Brown has coached nine different teams, which prompted one sportswriter to comment, "He will be in the Hall of Fame, perhaps with a suitcase under his bust."

Because of his frequent moves, Brown has coached only one champion, at the University of Kansas. However, he has brought immediate and often dramatic improvement to virtually every team he's guided.

Source: HickokSports.com Biography

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The sixth head coach in Kansas basketball history, Brown maintained the Jayhawks' national prominence while leading his teams to NCAA Tournament appearances in each of his five seasons. Brown accepted the head coaching position with the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA following the 1987-88 season. Brown had a cumulative collegiate coaching record of 177-61 (.744) in seven seasons, including a five-year mark of 135-44 (.754) at Kansas.

A 1963 graduate of North Carolina, Brown was an honorable mention All-America guard under former Kansas basketball player Dean Smith. After playing on the 1964 United States gold medal winning Olympic team, Brown went on to distinguish himself first as a player then as a coach in the American Basketball Association. He also served as a head coach in the NBA following its merger with the ABA.

While the head coach at UCLA (1979-80, 1980-81), Brown led his freshman-dominated 1979-80 team to the NCAA title game before falling to Louisville, 59-54. Brown's 1985-86 Kansas team reached the NCAA Final Four, and the 1987-88 Jayhawk squad won the national title, defeating Oklahoma 83-79. He was selected as the 1986 Big Eight Conference Coach of the Year.

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Larry Brown is the only coach to leave an NCAA champion before the next season for another coaching job.  The peripatetic Brown left the Jayhawks to coach the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs for 3 ½ seasons before moving over to the Los Angeles Clippers for 1 ½ years.  Then, he joined the Indiana Pacers before the start of the current campaign.

Larry Brown spent five years in Kansas.  The stint was the shortest for a Jayhawk coach; but for Brown, it must have seemed like an eternity.  He had a reputation in coaching for not sticking around, but he spent more time in Lawrence than he had in any other place.  His career with the Jayhawks culminated in a national championship in 1988.

Brown graduated from North Carolina in 1963, where he was an honorable-mention All-America guard under former jayhawks Dean Smith.  Brown played on the 1964 Olympic basketball team, played and coached at the professional level and took UCLA to the national finals in 1980.  He left KU after he was offerd a multimillion dollar contract to coach the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA. 

During his tenure, Kansas appeared in five straight NCAA Tournaments, win the 1985-86 Big Eight championship, won two Big Eight Tournament titles, made two trips to the Final Four and won its first national championship since 1952.  He was Big Eight Coach of the Year in 1986, and he coached Danny Manning, consensus Player of the Year in 1988 and an All-American at Kansas.

Since leaving the Jayhawks, Brown has coached the Spurs, the Clippers and the Pacers of the NBA.

Done deal: Brown headed to Knicks

Former KU coach to be introduced today in Manhattan

The Associated Press

Thursday, July 28, 2005

New York — A month of drama for Larry Brown ended with him landing his "dream job." At an age when many people are pondering retirement, Brown moved ahead into yet another chapter of his itinerant coaching career Wednesday when his agent finalized a contract with the New York Knicks.

Brown, a former Kansas University coach, will sit alongside team president Isiah Thomas when the Knicks introduce the 22nd coach in franchise history at a news conference today at Madison Square Garden, where the buzz could be coming back after nearly a half-decade of mediocrity and malaise.

He's taking over a team that's fallen on hard times. "To be honest with you, there hasn't been one job where I didn't feel like it was an unbelievable challenge," Brown, 64, said Wednesday night. "Just look at my track record. I've taken over some woeful teams."

Terms of Brown's contract were not disclosed, but he is believed to have signed a five-year deal worth between $50 million and $60 million, which would make him the highest-paid coach in professional sports history. "We're all stealing," Brown told the New York Daily News. "Coach (Dean) Smith gave me my first coaching job. I made $6,000 and I had to run the summer camp. I thought I was overpaid."

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Long Beach, L.I., Brown returns to coach the team he grew up rooting for. "I know what the New York Knicks mean to basketball, the city and what they mean to the league," Brown said. "I know how passionate people are in this environment and how much they understand the game.  "I want badly for this thing to turn around. I'm going to do my very best."

He's excited to be working with Thomas. "Isiah came in and sold my wife (Shelly). Every decision I've made has been on me. My wife has always said as long as Larry is happy we'll live anywhere, but she really wants to be here."